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THE KING’S BUSINESS
man who executes what has been planned. He must be a man bf action. “Must” is a strong word. We should rarely ever use it. But its use is justifiable here. The superin tendent must be a man of action. Passive evangelism is a flat contradiction, there can be no such thing. Evangelism is always active. When it ceases to be active, it is dead, and you had better bury it, or the board of health may come around. I do not know of any carcass that is quite so sweet to Satan’s vultures as a dead Sun day School superintendent. It is cause for great rejoicing in Hell when an evan gelistic superintendent begins to lose his hold, and allows opportunity after oppor tunity to speak for Jesus Christ to pass by unaccepted. Mr. Superintendent, you are the man under God who is responsible for the souls of the boys and girls, and men and women in your Sunday School, and if you áre not presenting Christ to them every 'Sunday—yes, I sáid every Sunday;, for there has been no Sunday School unless He has been lifted up—I say if you are not exalting Him on every Sunday, it is time for you to get out and give somebody else the opportunity. God has a better man for your place. CHRIST EVERYWHERE You say, I can’t present Jesus Christ every Sunday, because the lessons are not applicable. Man, there hasn’t been a Sun day School lesson since,the year 4000 B. C., frorn which you could not exalt Christ in your part of the service. You say, how about the first chapter of Genesis? Noth ing there about Christ. There isn’t ? Read Genesis 1 :26: “God said, Let us make man.” Who was “us?” I don’t know of anybody who was living at that time for God to talk to but His own Son. Do you? Wouldn’t right there be a good opportunity to show scholars that Jesus had always lived and that He was eternal, and that was one reason why He could give us eter nal life, because He had it Himself? Isn’t that presenting Christ to them from the first chapter of Genesis? You say, we don’t have time to' go into
anyi Oh, blit you say, if it were not for the Sunday School, we would find some other way to reach souls, and'build up our churches, and may be a better way at that. Well then, you had better be discovering it, for just as sure as thè sun sets in the west, the sun bf your Sunday School has passed its zenith, and will begin to go down, if you do not get behind it and stay behind it. It is the best source ybu have for building up your church. Ninety per cent, of all church members have come directly through the Sunday1School. Your Sunday School isn’t a Sunday School unless it is evangelistic. It is only a gathering—and a gathering must sooner or later break or be scattered. THE PREACHER WOKE UP Dr.' Davies, of the Bethlehem Presby terian church .of Philadelphia, of which church I was a member, realized where the church must go unless the pastor awoke to the importance of the Spnddy School in his work. He sounded the keynote of evangelism to his superintendent, officers and teachers. * The work of the' Sunday School was reorganized along evangelistic lines, and Dir. Davies spoke a few closing words, setting forth the fundamentals of salvation, and gave the invitation to accept Christ every Sunday at the d o s e of the school. An entirely new note of interest was soon discernible, and in a few weeks’ time there was hardly ,a Sunday passed that there was not some decision for Jesus Christ in that school. Not a communion passed after that without large accessions to the church from the Sunday School. What happened in that school, I believe is possible in every school when a pastor awakes to the need of active evangelism among the young people of his church. So much for the pastor of the evan gelistic school. If he is the power behind the throne in Sunday School work, the superintendent is the power on the throne. He is the commanding officer. He confers with his superior officer, of course, but it’s the superintendent who is responsible for setting the army in battle array. He is the
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